Does this sound like fibro?

I said...Basically, I feel various forms of pain in my elbows, fingers, shoulders, and knees. My elbows and fingers hurt whenever I'm straining myself via any activity that involves dexterity, especially video games, which are currently flat out impossible for me to take part in. If I try to resist against this pain, it just gets worse until I give up, and even then, I'll be even more sensitive to it for several days after the fact. I have a job that requires me to type, which would be awful if not for the fact that I wear wrist splints at work, which help with some of the pain but not all of it. Sometimes there's a tiny bit of tingling and/or numbness in my fingers, but that's actually pretty rare. Also, my shoulders are sore basically all the time.

The knee pain didn't start until about a year after the arm pain started, but it's starting to become the more immediate concern. It's severely limiting my ability to walk from place to place, since I can only walk a relatively small distance before one of my knees basically gives out and starts hurting so bad I have to limp the rest of the way I'm going, or just stop walking altogether. I went out and bought a cane and some shock absorbing insoles for my shoes, but I'm not sure those will be enough.

These are the symptoms I described in the thread I made in the chronic pain section. The doctors I'm seeing still can't decide whether or not I have fibro, and I've personally been going back and forth between thinking I do or don't have it, so I figured I'd ask if any of this sounds familiar to anybody here. I've been taking 150 mg of lyrica for about two weeks and nothing has really come of it, so if I really do have fibro, I think getting it treated will be tougher than I thought.

I answered your post over there, many things can cause your symptoms, and many of us have more than one issue we are dealing with..

Usually the drs , use a process of elimination..to get to a diagnosis of fibromyalgia..

Our great moderator Sherrine, will tell you we usually have pain in all four quadrants.

There are variations of fibromylagia, as well as varying known or suspected causes..

Also what helps one may not always help the next person..so its trial and error to get relief..

Personally i am very medication sensitive , so i have not tried some of the standard meds like lyrica.

I use and benefit from anti inflammatories, even though my blood inflammation numbrs are low.A physical therapist i worked with said there is a theory, that we have neuroinflammation at the cellular level, that does not show in the blood. Some believe this may have been caused by a virus..

When you talk about video games causing pain, it reminded me that when i switched from a desktop to an ipad..i got a serious case of "ipaditis" from using my hands and arms so differently. I had to use topical pain relievers to get through it 😊, looked it up and it was something many people had with that change

All of our varied symptoms are listed in fibro 101 at the top of the page, as well as studied ways to help ourselves

Hi, Alex, and welcome! I’m not a doctor but the hand and elbow pain sounds like carpal tunnel. Yes, it can affect your elbows. It does for me. When I first came down with fibro I was watching TV. All of a sudden my toes hurt, then my ankles, then knees, then hips, and as the pain worked up my body, it hit my elbows and it was like I had banged my “funny bone (nerve) and it stayed that way for two weeks. I thought I had developed rheumatoid arthritis because the pain was symmetrical. I was put on ibuprofen for the pain.

Your saying it’s difficult to play video games sent up a second red flag. Repeated movement of fingers, hand and wrists can irritate the median nerve more and keep it inflamed. You can have outright pain or tingling, burning, etc. with carpal tunnel. Carpal tunnel affects the thumb, index finger, middle finger, and the inside of the ring finger. The pinkie isn’t affected by this nerve.

Below was gotten off an orthopedic site.

“Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the median nerve in your wrist becomes pressed or squeezed. The carpal tunnel refers to ligament and bone at the base of your hand that lines the median nerve and tendons. This nerve goes from the forearm into the palm of your hand, providing movement and feeling to your thumb and your first three fingers.

When your median nerve is compressed, it can cause tingling, numbness, and pain in your hand, forearm, wrist, or elbow. Gripping objects or performing activities that cause you to bend your wrist can make the pain and other symptoms worse. Everyday tasks may become harder as you find it more difficult to hold objects such as a fork or use your thumb to perform simple tasks such as opening a jar.”

Fibromyalgia affects the muscles, tendons, and ligaments so that does play into the carpal tunnel problem...if that is what you are dealing with. And, as Ljm said, the pain is in all four quadrants of the body so you do fit this description and most of us feel like we have the flu at times and we also have fatigue.

I’m not sure what is going on with your knees. You might have a touch of arthritis. A rheumatologist can check for that. We usually have more muscle pain than knee pain.

You should see a good board certified rheumatologist who treats fibro patients. There are some doctors out there in the Dark ages when it comes to this illness so do ask before making an appointment. They should run a lot of blood work on you to rule out other illnesses that have many of the same symptoms as fibro...things like Lyme disease and lupus. There are good tests for these other illnenesses but no good test for fibro. Once the other illnesses are ruled out usually a diagnosis of fibro is given.

Be sure to read Fibro 101...the first thread on the forum. There are links to good info about fibro and you will learn a lot there.

I’m looking forward to getting to know you better. Do let us know what you find out because we do care about you. Don’t hesitate to ask questions because we are here to help you. Hope to hear more from you soon.

Carpal tunnel was the very first thing I looked into, since at first, my arms were the only problem.After multiple prednisone prescriptions, cortisone shots, and two and a half months of therapy, nothing improved. Anti-inflammatories in general do absolutely nothing for me. I also had a nerve conduction test last year, which came up normal according to the neurologist. So I'm pretty sure I don't have carpal tunnel.

Also, I already had a blood test for autoimmune diseases, and it came up negative.

I'm aware of the Fibro 101 thread (I'll give it another look soon in case I missed something), I just wanted to ask about my particular form of pain, at least as best as I can describe it. Strangely, I seem to fit quite a few fibro symptoms, but whenever I talk to or hear about people who have it, they describe something different than what I'm feeling.

I saw an orthopedic specialist last year. He gave me some MRIs, x-rays, and physical therapy prescriptions. None of those really went anywhere, so he eventually just referred me to a rheumatologist, who prescribed me the lyrica that's currently not helping.

Well, the MRI of my left arm actually did show a little inflammation, but apparently not enough to warrant the level of pain I'm feeling, at least according to the doctor.

They said they want to see me again in a couple of months. So far, drowsiness is all I'm getting from lyrica. Could be worse, but should be better.

I've been taking the vitamin D supplements for a month now, and I don't feel any different. I got another blood test and they said my D levels are fine now, though I'm not sure if the supplements I'm taking caused the test to be inaccurate.

Got some trigger point injections in my shoulders and back. Didn't do anything, but I'm not too surprised at this point.

I'm thinking I'll get another MRI to see if I have tendonisis in more than just my left arm. I've heard tendinosis works differently from tendonitis, and if that's true, it would explain why those ant-inflammatories didn't work.